---
title: "GLM-5.1"
metatags:
  description: "Deploy GLM-5.1 model with SGLang on Ascend NPUs, including multi-node PD mixed and PD disaggregation modes."
---

## Introduction

GLM-5.1 is a Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) large language model developed by Z.ai, featuring 744B total parameters with 40B
active parameters. It uses 256 routed experts (top-8) plus one shared expert, with Multi-head Latent Attention (MLA)
and DeepSeek Sparse Attention (DSA), and a built-in multi-token prediction (MTP) head for speculative decoding.
The model features built-in bilingual (Chinese-English) capabilities with a unified pre-training framework, excelling at
reasoning, math, code, and tool calling tasks. GLM-5.1 supports both Thinking mode (step-by-step reasoning) and Instruct
mode (direct response), with a native context window of approximately 200k tokens.

This document demonstrates the deployment of GLM-5.1 on Ascend NPUs using SGLang, including multi-node PD mixed mode,
multi-node PD disaggregation mode, feature configuration, and performance optimization.

This document is validated and written based on **SGLang v0.5.16**. The current model (GLM-5.1) is fully supported in
this version. To use the latest features (e.g., speculative decoding, multi-node deployment), it is recommended to use
v0.5.16 or a later version.

## Supported features

| Feature                       | Example usage                                                                     |
|-------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Tensor Parallelism            | `--tp-size 16`                                                                    |
| Data Parallelism              | `--dp-size 16`                                                                    |
| Expert Parallelism            | `--ep-size 16 \`<br/>`--moe-a2a-backend deepep \`<br/>`--deepep-mode auto`         |
| Context Parallelism           | `--enable-nsa-prefill-context-parallel \`<br/>`--nsa-prefill-cp-mode in-seq-split \`<br/>`--attn-cp-size 4` |
| PD Disaggregation             | `--disaggregation-mode prefill \`<br/>`--disaggregation-transfer-backend ascend`  |
| Quantization                  | `--quantization modelslim`                                                        |
| Chunked Prefill               | auto based on device memory, or set explicit value;<br/>disable with `--chunked-prefill-size -1`; e.g., `--chunked-prefill-size 16384` |
| NPU Graph                     | enabled by default; disable with `--disable-cuda-graph`;<br/>control range via `--cuda-graph-bs` or `--cuda-graph-max-bs-decode`; e.g., `--cuda-graph-bs 1 2 3 4 5 6` |
| Speculative Decoding          | `--speculative-algorithm NEXTN \`<br/>`--speculative-num-steps 3 \`<br/>`--speculative-eagle-topk 1 \`<br/>`--speculative-num-draft-tokens 4 \`<br/>`--speculative-draft-model-quantization unquant` |
| Overlap Schedule              | `export SGLANG_ENABLE_OVERLAP_PLAN_STREAM=1`                                      |
| DP LM Head                    | `--enable-dp-lm-head`                                                             |

<Note>
The values in the **Example usage** column are for illustration only. Adjust them according to your hardware, deployment
mode, and workload. For parameter details, see
[Feature descriptions](/docs/hardware-platforms/ascend-npus/optimization/parameter_tuning#feature-descriptions); for
recommended configurations for each deployment scenario, see [Best practices](#best-practices).
</Note>

For feature compatibility and conflict information between features,
see [Feature Compatibility](/docs/hardware-platforms/ascend-npus/optimization/parameter_tuning#feature-compatibility).

## Prerequisites

### Environment

Before following this tutorial, complete the environment setup in the documents below:

- [Ascend NPU Quickstart](/docs/hardware-platforms/ascend-npus/getting-started/quick_start) — the fastest way to get started.
  It walks you through launching the official container image, starting the SGLang server, and sending a test request.
  Recommended if you are new to SGLang on Ascend.
- [SGLang Installation with NPU Support](/docs/hardware-platforms/ascend-npus/getting-started/installation) — the full installation guide.
  It covers the component version mapping (CANN, TorchNPU, Triton, kernels, etc.), building from source or from a
  Dockerfile, and recommended system settings (CPU power scheme, NUMA, swap). Use it when you need to install or customize
  the environment instead of using the official image.

### Model weights

Before downloading model weights, check the model size to reserve enough disk space.
For multi-node deployment, download the weights to a shared directory accessible to all nodes.

- [GLM-5.1](https://www.modelscope.cn/models/ZhipuAI/GLM-5.1) (BF16, 1.51TB)
- [GLM-5.1-w4a8](https://www.modelscope.cn/models/Eco-Tech/GLM-5.1-w4a8) (Quantized version, 420.17GB)
- You can use [msmodelslim](https://gitcode.com/Ascend/msmodelslim) to quantize the model naively.

<Info>
We recommend deploying the W4A8 variant for reduced resource usage and higher throughput.
It (420.17GB) can be deployed on 8 × 64GB of device memory (`--tp-size 8`), which corresponds to one full A2 node or 8 dies on A3 (4 cards).
</Info>

This is the minimum recommended configuration. For optimized configurations,
see [Best practices](#best-practices), which may require additional cards or nodes.

For the hardware specifications (memory per die, dies per card, and the difference between A2 and A3),
see [Ascend NPU Reference — Hardware](/docs/hardware-platforms/ascend-npus/reference/glossary#hardware).

## Installation

<Warning>
Ensure sufficient disk space before pulling images. The Docker image requires at least **30GB** of free space.
</Warning>

The dependencies required for the NPU runtime environment have been integrated into a Docker image and uploaded to the
online platform. You can directly pull it.

Both **stable releases** and **daily builds** are available. The following command is based on the stable release tag.
For details, see [Docker image versions](/docs/hardware-platforms/ascend-npus/faq#8-docker-image-versions-stable-release-vs-daily-build).

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="Atlas 800I A3">

```bash Command
docker pull quay.io/ascend/sglang:cann9.0.0-a3-v0.5.16

docker run -itd --shm-size=16g --name ${NAME} \
--privileged=true --net=host \
-v /var/queue_schedule:/var/queue_schedule \
-v /etc/ascend_install.info:/etc/ascend_install.info \
-v /usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/sbin \
-v /usr/local/Ascend/driver:/usr/local/Ascend/driver \
-v /usr/local/Ascend/firmware:/usr/local/Ascend/firmware \
--device=/dev/davinci0:/dev/davinci0  \
--device=/dev/davinci1:/dev/davinci1  \
--device=/dev/davinci2:/dev/davinci2  \
--device=/dev/davinci3:/dev/davinci3  \
--device=/dev/davinci4:/dev/davinci4  \
--device=/dev/davinci5:/dev/davinci5  \
--device=/dev/davinci6:/dev/davinci6  \
--device=/dev/davinci7:/dev/davinci7  \
--device=/dev/davinci8:/dev/davinci8  \
--device=/dev/davinci9:/dev/davinci9  \
--device=/dev/davinci10:/dev/davinci10  \
--device=/dev/davinci11:/dev/davinci11  \
--device=/dev/davinci12:/dev/davinci12  \
--device=/dev/davinci13:/dev/davinci13  \
--device=/dev/davinci14:/dev/davinci14  \
--device=/dev/davinci15:/dev/davinci15  \
--device=/dev/davinci_manager:/dev/davinci_manager \
--device=/dev/hisi_hdc:/dev/hisi_hdc \
--entrypoint=bash \
quay.io/ascend/sglang:cann9.0.0-a3-v0.5.16
```

  </Tab>
  <Tab title="Atlas 800I A2">

```bash Command
docker pull quay.io/ascend/sglang:cann9.0.0-910b-v0.5.16

docker run -itd --shm-size=16g --name ${NAME} \
--privileged=true --net=host \
-v /var/queue_schedule:/var/queue_schedule \
-v /etc/ascend_install.info:/etc/ascend_install.info \
-v /usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/sbin \
-v /usr/local/Ascend/driver:/usr/local/Ascend/driver \
-v /usr/local/Ascend/firmware:/usr/local/Ascend/firmware \
--device=/dev/davinci0:/dev/davinci0  \
--device=/dev/davinci1:/dev/davinci1  \
--device=/dev/davinci2:/dev/davinci2  \
--device=/dev/davinci3:/dev/davinci3  \
--device=/dev/davinci4:/dev/davinci4  \
--device=/dev/davinci5:/dev/davinci5  \
--device=/dev/davinci6:/dev/davinci6  \
--device=/dev/davinci7:/dev/davinci7  \
--device=/dev/davinci_manager:/dev/davinci_manager \
--device=/dev/hisi_hdc:/dev/hisi_hdc \
--entrypoint=bash \
quay.io/ascend/sglang:cann9.0.0-910b-v0.5.16
```

  </Tab>
</Tabs>

<Tip>
- If the model weights have already been downloaded to a shared directory, use `-v` to mount the model path into the
  container, for example: `-v /path/to/models:/models`.
- Replace `${NAME}` with your own container name or remove `--name` to use default name.
</Tip>

## Online service deployment

### Multi-node PD mixed deployment

Multi-node deployment distributes the model across multiple Atlas 800I A3 nodes using tensor parallelism while keeping
prefill and decode on the same nodes (PD mixed mode), suitable for scenarios that need more device memory than a single
node can provide. This scenario is already covered in the best practice. For the complete, optimized
deployment commands and benchmark data, see
[GLM-5.1 Best Practice — Multi-node PD Mixed On A3](/docs/hardware-platforms/ascend-npus/model-deployment/best-practices/glm_5_1#multi-node-pd-mixed).

### Multi-node PD disaggregation deployment

PD disaggregation splits the prefill and decode stages onto separate nodes, reducing interference and improving
throughput for high-concurrency scenarios. This scenario is already covered in the best practice. For the complete, optimized
deployment commands and benchmark data, see
[GLM-5.1 Best Practice — PD Disaggregation On A3](/docs/hardware-platforms/ascend-npus/model-deployment/best-practices/glm_5_1#pd-disaggregation).

## Functional verification

After the service is started, you can invoke the model by sending a prompt:

```shell
# ============================================================
# Before running, update the following variables:
#   HOST: the server host address (e.g., localhost)
#   PORT: the server port number (e.g., 6689)
# ============================================================

curl http://${HOST}:${PORT}/generate \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -d '{
        "text": "What is the capital of France?",
        "sampling_params": {
            "max_new_tokens": 64,
            "temperature": 0
        }
    }'
```

Expected result: an HTTP 200 response with the generated text containing "Paris".

Once the server prints `The server is fired up and ready to roll!` in the logs, it is ready to accept requests. For more
testing examples (Health Check, Generate, Chat Completions, and port usage guidance),
see [Testing the Service](/docs/hardware-platforms/ascend-npus/getting-started/installation#testing-the-service).

## Accuracy evaluation

For accuracy evaluation methods and datasets, see [Accuracy Evaluation on Ascend NPU](/docs/hardware-platforms/ascend-npus/evaluation/accuracy_evaluation).

## Performance

For performance data and benchmark commands, see [Performance Testing on Ascend NPU](/docs/hardware-platforms/ascend-npus/evaluation/performance_testing).

## Best practices

### Best practice configuration reference

For complete optimal configurations with deployment scripts and benchmark commands, see the
[GLM-5.1 Best Practice](/docs/hardware-platforms/ascend-npus/model-deployment/best-practices/glm_5_1) page.

## Performance tuning

For the full list of supported features, see [Supported features](#supported-features). For detailed optimization
guidance, see [Optimization on Ascend NPU](/docs/hardware-platforms/ascend-npus/optimization/parameter_tuning).

## FAQ

For common environment, installation, and general parameter issues, please refer to the [Ascend NPU FAQ](/docs/hardware-platforms/ascend-npus/faq).
